Tohru defeated Akito

newchaotic said:
I have seen a lot of people saying things like Akito should be punished, needs to be made to pay for her crimes, etc. I feel like some of these people are missing the point. Akito will pay, in her own way, mostly through continued psychological suffering over what she did that we have already seen beginning in the past couple episodes. But this story was never about defeating the antagonist by "making them pay" in some traditional sense. From the beginning Furuba was an episodic series in which Tohru had to face a different 'antagonist' every week or so, and these antagonists were the inner demons of the Sohma family. Every time she is presented with a new Sohma it is her role to help them face their inner demons and accept themselves, and each time she helps one of them, she gets closer to her ultimate goal, which is to free the family from the curse/ the past and to be with Kyo. This story structure comes to a head at the end of S1 when Tohru finally helps Kyo, the most troubled character of that season, face and accept his 'true form'. It comes to a head again in S2 with both Yuki and Rin.

From the beginning Akito was presented as the biggest threat to Tohru's wishes coming true, thus the story was building to the moment when Tohru will finally have to do for Akito what she did for the others, and it is made clear that it will be much harder with Akito because their goals are directly opposed. And it is hard. Tohru gets cut up with a knife and then falls off a cliff. But her struggle succeeds. She wins. There's almost nothing standing in the way of her and Kyo now, besides their own silliness as seen in ep 10. But the threat has been removed.

Just wanted to say this because I feel like it is relevant to all the discussion going on about Akito and whether she deserves redemption. I think it is necessary to look at it through a different lens. Akito is an important character but she is not the protagonist. Tohru is. Ultimately Akito exists to serve Tohru's story and this is a story about Tohru getting what she wants through her kindness and ability to forgive.